Graphics programs crashing?!?

[JeepinEd]

I'm having a strange problem. I built a new machine about 8 months ago. Everything seemed to be running fine, but I had not needed to use any graphics programs.
I have an old version of Corel Draw suite 9 and an even older version of Adobe Photoshop 5.
Both these programs ran fine on my old machine. When I run the program, It will let me load an image, but as soon as I start to edit the image, the program hangs. Sometimes it will hang for a few minutes, other times permanently. This happens with both Corel Photo Paint 9 and Adobe (can't remember if it does it in Corel Draw 9 + not at home to try). All my other software programs run fine, including my copy of Roxio Easy Media Creator 8, which I have used extensively to create videos.

Here is my current set up (from memory):
Win XP Home (all updates applied)
3GHz P4HT running on an Intel 915GAGL board
ATI Radeon X800XT
2 Gigs of Ram (Corsair D400 - 4x512M)
250 Gig Western Digital SATA2 drive (running on Sata 1 compatibility mode)
On board sound
Sony Dual Layer DVD recorder

I Just purchased a 320 Gig WD drive and did a fresh Windows install. I only loaded Windowns, drivers and the two graphics programs. Still the same problem.

I'm stumped. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Ed

 

[HPTech]

This is very strange. We have a similar issue on the ZD7xxx series laptops where the memory modules were behaving strangely with Photoshop [and only Photoshop, which was the weird thing]. Changing the modules solved the issue, as did re-seating sometimes. Try using differenet combinations of memory sticks/reseat and see i that helps 1st?

Mike

 

[JeepinEd]

I thought of that.
I originally had the 512 sticks. I took those out and put in a brand new set from a different manufacturer (can't recall the brand at this time). The problem still did not go away, so no I have both sets in there.

I have also tried running some memory diagnostic programs. No problems were found.
My only other clue is that Google Earth will only run in protected mode, otherwise it hangs. Aside from that, all my other software, including games such as Half Life 2 run just fine.

I'm stumped.